Probes find no real cause of Tampaco fire

Committees formed to submit investigation reports on the fire at Tongi's Tampaco Foils Factory failed to identify a definitive cause of the blaze but they found huge irregularities in the use of gas by the company.
"Tampaco has set up a boiler at the factory without taking any permission from Titas authorities, it also set up a booster pump machine illegally to extract gas from the pipeline to run the boiler. Ignoring Titas rules the factory set up all boilers on the 1st floor of the factory although it should have been placed on the ground floor," a senior official of the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
Sixteen days after the fire, three more bodies have been recovered from the debris of the Tampaco Foils Factory in Tongi. The fire claimed 35 lives and injured at least 40 others. Ten others are still unaccounted for, says the district administration.
A fire swept through the food and cigarette packaging factory on September 10, following a huge explosion. Now three separate authorities are investigating the accident or manmade disaster.
 After five days of the inferno, Titas formed a committee to investigate the cause of the disaster. It termed the accident the worst disaster in Bangladesh since the Rana Plaza building collapse. The district administration, Fire Service, police, National Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Labour have formed separate committees to probe into the fire incident. A member of the Titas Gas investigation body said that the gas line booster explosion may have caused the fire, but the probe body later said they suspect chemicals stored in the factory were responsible for the blaze.
A committee headed by the General Manager for Dhaka Metro North of Titas Gas, Rana Akbar Haider has been submitted its report on Thursday following an investigation there. Titas Gas investigators suspect that flammable chemicals might have caused the fire at the Tampaco Foils Factory.
"Gas itself can behave like an explosive and at the same time a huge flammable chemicals presence was there, the illegal connection, unauthorized boiler was installed there and all these things was happening for ages then my question is what the authorites including Titas and factory inspectors were doing there," Dr Ijaz Hossain asked.
He said everyone is equally responsible, this incident showcased us how a owner-company and monitoring authority help and benefited each other to do wrong against society and mankind.
The committee report also said that it found evidence of the presence of an illegal booster machine to pull gas for an 'unauthorised' boiler machine and a thermo fluid heater. "We store huge chemical there, however, the ethyl acetate may also have been the reason behind the fire," it said. "Such chemicals vaporise in more than minus 4 degrees Celsius temperature and explode if something sparks," Haider said.
Titas investigated that whether any leakage in gas line caused the fire that burnt down Tampaco Foils Factory in Tongi or not.
Titas official alleges Tampaco had set up one of the two boilers without permission of the Office of the Chief Inspector of Boilers. Around 70 per cent of the three-storey factory collapsed due to the fire which broke out at Tampaco Foils Ltd following an explosion.
Contrary to Titas official's comments, Tampaco Foils Assistant Engineer (Mechanical) Md Nayan Uddin told the media that he knew nothing about any booster machine to pull gas in the factory. Titas officials said the factory might have set up the booster to pull gas needed for the unauthorized extra boiler and a thermo fluid heater.
"Two boilers of the factory were found to be intact," boiler inspector Md Sharafat Ali said.
"Not the boiler explosion, there was another reason behind the fire," Ali said adding "it was the explosion in the booster machine that caused such devastation."
Fire Service investigation panel's head Deputy Director Badiuzzaman also refused to comment on the investigation saying that "we are speaking to experts." Tampaco remained open even in the night while the other factories in Tongi's BSCIC Industrial City were closed during the Eid-ul-Azha holidays. And it runs into three shifts. "The factory has been paying the gas bill only for 13-14 hours per day," Titas report said. Tampaco Assistant Engineer Uddin said the boilers at the factory were shut when the explosion took place early in the morning.
He said the gas line might have exploded due to excessive pressure of gas. "This pressure was at the 'unauthorised' gas connection areas," Titas claimed.
The factory's Production Officer Habibur Rahman said the factory used several types of adhesives, including ethyl acetate. He said there would be no reason for the chemicals to catch fire without any spark. He also suspects a pipe in the gas substation of the factory might have exploded leading to the fire.
Tampaco Foils owner former BNP MP Syed Md Moqbul Hossain is accused of culpable homicide in two cases filed after the incident. Gazipur police said they found negligence of the authorities in the factory fire.